Terror suspect guilty on two of three counts

OTTAWA - Former Ottawa hospital technician Misbahuddin Ahmed was found guilty Friday of two terrorism-related charges, but a jury acquitted him on a third more serious count.

Ahmed, 30, was convicted of conspiring to knowingly facilitate a terrorist activity and participation in the activities of a terrorist group. He was found not guilty of possession of explosives with intent to do harm.

He was taken into custody pending sentencing on Sept. 15.

Neatly dressed in a grey suit, yellow shirt and striped tie, Ahmed fiddled with a piece of paper and showed no obvious emotion as the verdict was delivered after two days of deliberations.

A female relative wept as the guilty findings were read out.

She and other family members, many of who attended much of the two-month trial, were allowed to spend a few minutes with Ahmed in a room near the court before he was taken away.

Ahmed faces a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison on the conspiracy charge.

He and two alleged co-conspirators were charged following a top-secret RCMP security operation dubbed Project Samossa.

The Crown contended the three men agreed to raise money to support a violent jihad and to make and use explosives against targets in Canada.

During a seven-month operation, RCMP anti-terrorist officers collected thousands of intercepts through surveillance of the homes, cars, phones and computer communications of the three men.

One of the co-accused, Khurram Syed Sher, was tried by a judge earlier this year on one conspiracy count.

Sher was an anatomical pathologist in St. Thomas, Ont., south of London, before his arrest in August 2010.

A publication ban was imposed on the identity of the third alleged co-conspirator.